The Year of Moving Forward

At our 4 person wedding reception in DC

Friday, March 30, 2007

Pelosi and Reid Finally Show Their Strength

We finally have congressional leaders that have guts. Both Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have led their legislative bodies (the House of Representatives and the Senate) to pass a funding bill that requires the troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq, and to be out by 2008 ( the dates in the two bills are different). It’s about time, since the president has no clue as to how a war should be run. We should have known that when he began pulling forces from Afghanistan prematurely so he could go after Saddam.

Nancy boldly said, “On this very important matter, I would extend a hand of friendship to the president. Just to say to him, ‘Calm down with the threats, there’s a new congress in town. We respect your constitutional role; we want you to respect ours. We want this war to end.’ The American people have lost faith in this president’s conduct of the war; let’s see how we can work together. This war is diminishing the strength of our military, not honoring the commitment to our veterans and not holding the Iraqi government accountable. When the president says he want to veto this bill he says ‘I am vetoing accountability. Accountability of my own administration and of the Iraqi government. He says I forbid…veto, forbid, I forbid, accountability’.”

Nancy, you speak the truth!

And of course George Bush has promised to veto this bill, thus vetoing funding for the troops.

And Harry Reid says, “We have fulfilled our constitutional responsibilities,” and “We’ve spoken the words the American people wanted us to speak. There must be a change of direction in the war in Iraq, the civil war in Iraq.”

The Senate and the House have held together and done what we’ve done,” he told reporters. “It’s now in his corner to do what he wants to do.”

On Wednesday, together they had sent the president a letter that read "This Congress is taking the responsible course and responding to needs that have been ignored by your administration and the prior Congress."

Maybe they aren’t wimps after all. Of course our own senators voted against the bill. Richard Shelby said, “It is the wrong message at the wrong time, surely this will embolden the enemy, it will not help our troops in any way.”

Let me ask Richard the same question I wanted to ask a radio host yesterday who was critical of the impending vote who said we would be giving the enemy the date we were leaving. Who is the enemy? When we invaded, I thought the enemy was Saddam. But he was soon captured, and has since been executed. So who is the enemy? Is it the Shiites? No. Or the Sunnis? Well? After all, they are fighting each other. You know, our “ally” King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia said this week “In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war."

So our strongest ally says our presence is an illegal occupation, I guess because it looks to them like we are supporting the wrong side.

To make things even more interesting, at the two day meeting in Riyadh, the Saudis admitted an Israeli reporter traveling with the United Nations. This is the first Israeli reporter allowed in the Muslim kingdom. Wow!

Come to Africam. Always live, always wild. Right now there are zebras. You have to sit through an Orbitz ad, then its a live cam sometimes of a watering hole, sometimes of the savannah. http://www.africam.com/nkhoro_cam1.php.

And if you haven't read Jason's comment on yesterday's blog, take a look.

2 comments:

I can't predict how it's all going to work out. Up until now we've been told over and over how skillful Bush Bush is at deflecting his opponents. But as Pelosi said, there's a new Congress in town and maybe he won't find himself so successful now that there is something other than a pack of sycophants to rubberstamp whatever he wants.

Pelosi did a magnificent job this week, and if you haven't seen it, there's a series of photos here that encapsulates perfectly how out of his abilities this perfectly awful president is. Jeez, I just look at that series and it makes me shudder to see this boy-emperor in contrast to Pelosi.

Dad, I'm sorry but it usually takes me a couple of days to getting around to reading your blogs. Well I just read the 2 day blog about the Birmingham city council and now I am truly embarrassed to tell people that I am from Birmingham. I hope that Bessemer does a better job at deciding what our city really needs. I just don't seem to understand how people can be so closed minded. Especially considering not everyone on that city council is white, a man, and all the same age. How could they turn down something that was going to benefit them as well as everyone else? The year is 2007 but some people are still living like they are in the years before the civil rights movement. Do we need to have a "We shall Overcome March" to Birmingham in order for others to see how this is a big deal? The next thing that makes me irate is when you spoke of the hatred that was expressed in the actions and voices of the members of the city council as Patricia Todd spoke. What the hell did she ever do to them? I am only 20 years old and I know better than to snicker or to be repulsed by someone else's beliefs. I guess that is the difference though, I was brought up by great parents who taught me that individuality and uniqueness is something that we should embrace with open arms. How boring of a place would this earth be if everyone was the same? My generation is a generation full of diversity and one day it will be us up there deciding the next laws, or teaching our children, and even governing our country. I know this may sound a little scary but I believe we can do better than the idiots turning down great resolutions and starting bullshit wars (pardon my language but that is how I truly feel). I have faith in my generation because we have been raised in a society where we can be different and not be punished and where we can say what we want and people don't act like 2 year olds, instead they sit there and listen. I just hope that we don't have to wait until my generation takes over in order for the world to change. I just felt like ranting a little bit! I love ya! love marlow